Looking for advice on a new in-home set-up

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Looking for advice on a new in-home set-up

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Looking for advice on a new in-home set-up
Looking for advice on a new in-home set-up
2022-09-27 19:52:17 - last edited 2022-09-27 19:55:31

Attached is the basic (poorly drawn) layout of my home.
TL;DR: Need help with AP's on each floor for max coverage and quality, I cannot ceiling mount AP's without breaking up walls which the S.O. won't allow. What AP's would give good coverage? Could the outdoor ones work in the offices? https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/omada-sdn-access-point/eap225-outdoor/v1/

 

Long version:

Currently, I have a Ubiquity Nano G (owned by the ISP, I do not control) hooked to a wifi disabled Linksys wrt3200acm router in the basement (doing DNS, QoS, etc), and next to it a personal RPi nextcloud (LAN only). On each floor is an office with a TP-Link Deco axe5400 in Access Point mode (recent purchase) backhauled with ethernet. These are in AP mode I haven't been thrilled with coverage and speed. I will likely send these back. Also, for the price, seems overkill to then put in AP mode and not have control and feature set I could achieve with a full Omada set of hardware.

All rooms upstairs are wired for ethernet connections (Cat5e), and I'd like to utilized those in the future. The boy will want his gaming hardwired in the next couple years for sure.

Office 2 upstairs has two hardwired PC's (Laptop for work, desktop for play). Currently using the Deco's switch, but I can use an unmanaged switch I already own for that. Office 1 downstairs is my S.O.'s work area, and she's good with wifi as long as it's a good connection for her work.

I've been looking at a full Omada set-up. Doing research it seems to have all the things I'd like to have and with relative ease of use. My biggest issue is I don't know

I do have an older PC I could convert for about $60 in hardware to a pfsense router, though it's older and not very energy efficient, and pfsense might be more management than I desire.

I am unable to use ceiling mounted stuff because it would require a lot of work on the fist floor I do no want to do, and my S.O. is very disinterested in. The 2nd floor wouldn't be too hard, but that doesn't help me downstairs.

So, what AP's from Tp-Link do y'all think would work? I was wondering of the outdoor ones with antenna's cold work in each office on each floor, but can't find any information on people using them inside. All the other AP's are designed for ceiling mounting, which won't work for me.
I need to have a router and swtich in the basement to serve all the rooms, and give me one point of control.

 

Set-up I'm considering buying:

TP-Link ER605 Router
OC200 controller

TP-Link TL-SG2008P switch
AP's ???? HELP!!!
 

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Re:Looking for advice on a new in-home set-up
2022-09-28 06:15:34

  @CoderGuy 

 

Yes EAP225-Outdoor can also be used in-door.

 

If the coverage, you can also add external EAP225 to build a Mesh network, that mesns the external EAP will work as wireless extender of your root EAP.

How to Build a Mesh Network via Omada EAP in Your Home

 

BTW ceiling EAP can also work if you put it on the table, like a normal router. 

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Re:Looking for advice on a new in-home set-up
2022-09-28 13:14:32

@Somnus From all my reading I worry a ceiling EAP's radio footprint would cause problems set on table. The way it projects out the signal is at an angle to spread it down and out, so on a table wouldn't that mean it's going up and out, so it would create dead zones the further out it is? I don't mean just less signal, I mean actual dead zones. If I set it face down on a table, then I won't be projecting out much from the table top it sits upon...
 

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Re:Looking for advice on a new in-home set-up
2022-09-28 17:48:49

  @CoderGuy 

 

Theory or specs aside, I have two EAP660HDs. One of them just lies down “face-up” at a coffee table level in my living room next to my TV, AV receiver with 4 speakers, and a coupe of network switches and a router. The other one is mounted to a 10 feet ceiling 50 feet away and there is just one network switch next to it. Believe me or not, I do not see any difference between them as to the WiFi range, speed or reliability. Both work very well.

Kris K
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